“Quite possibly the worst job at Powell’s is changing the marquee. I’m not one to complain usually but each time I go out there to change it, something horrible and life-threatening happens. You see, our marquee is old. And dirty. And the gutters where the letters are supposed to sit are often warped or totally broken. I’m lucky if I can fit more than a couple words on each line. It’s like writing haiku, but with less syllables. Somehow, yesterday, I was able to put a web address on there to promote our poetry contest. I was amazed at my achievement. But these rewards do not come without cost.”

December 03, 2007

Portland indie bookstore Powell’s has done a great job of using the media to tell its story, highlighting its own unique situation, but also helping readers understand some of the larger trends affecting independent online bookselling.

“But Powell, the man closest to the action, is not celebrating. He listed some of the things that have made the store noteworthy and successful — the mix of new and used, the early Web presence, the symbiotic relationship with the city of Portland, with which he remains very involved — and concluded: ‘That has carried us well to the moment. The moment is full of trepidation and uncertainty.’”

[Now Reading: India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha]

December 04, 2006

Custom library designers—folks who purchase themed collections of books for clients who want instant home or corporate libraries —have the most absurd and interesting jobs.

For example, I’ve seen quite a few references to Nancy Bass from the Strand Bookstore in New York, which quite literally sells Books by the Foot, ranging from $10/foot for bargain books to $400/foot for antique leather.

Ms. Bass isn’t alone. According to a story in Forbes, Michael Lamb of Powell’s Books does much the same thing, helping custom-design a $70,000 insta-library for a Saudi Arabian sheik, and buying books by the foot for McMenamins bars and hotels in the Pacific Northwest.

August 23, 2006

My wife and I spent our 4th of July weekend in Portland, Oregon. She's a landscape architect, designing parks, school playgrounds, and other public projects; she wanted to check out Portland's public art and green spaces. I'm a book junkie; all I wanted to see was Powell's.

I've been dreaming about visiting Powell's Books for years, ever since I started hearing stories about the massive downtown "Powell's City of Books" location, an entire city block in size, and the largest independent bookstore in America.

My friends weren't kidding. Powell's is amazing not just for its size, but for its quality: great categorization, a complete intermixing of new and used books on the shelves, and smart subject-specific booksellers who offered thoughtful recommendations in answer to all my queries.

Having been raised on mall bookstores, I remember how stunned I was to find a huge muckraking section when I first visited City Lights Books as a teenager. My wife had the same reaction when she discovered shelves full of new and used architecture and public planning books at Powell's—more than she'd ever seen outside of a library. After a day of exploration, we ended up hauling home a quadruple-packed grocery bag full of books.

But not everyone's quite so excited. Powell's, the gloriously pure indie that could, needs a constant supply of books to sell, and Portland's just not big enough anymore. They first hit Seattle in a big way in 2004, and I just read a recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle reporting on how Powell's has been systematically buying up the inventories of failing independent Bay Area bookstores, sometimes at substantial discounts. The booksellers quoted don't always seem resentful, but it's a delicate balance, one that director Emily Powell acknowledges: "We certainly make it harder for others...We're part of why this is an increasingly challenging business." There can be too much of a good thing.

We've spent a lot of time at BookFinder.com debating the ethics of buying, selling, and collecting books, trying to make sense of a fast-changing world. New or used, reading or collecting, content or presentation, owning or borrowing, online or offline, indie or corporate, open or proprietary, individual or professional, mediated or direct? We usually come to the conclusion that there's no one right answer for everyone, and that our interactions with print culture are too big to generalize about. We live with the gray areas, frustrating as they are; I'm still eagerly looking forward to visiting Powell's again the next time I'm in Portland.

June 06, 2006

Michael Powell, the founder of Powell’s Books in Portland, and one of the best-known independent booksellers in America, is stepping down; his daughter Emily will be taking on the reins of the business.

We’ve been working with the folks at Powell’s Books for years, and have nothing but good things to say about them. Charlie and I remember discovering that strange online bookstore at www.powells.portland.or.us back in 1994-1995, when the Web was young and unformed, and we were just getting accustomed to the idea of buying things online.

November 19, 2002

Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon is not only one of the best known (and largest) American independent bookstores, but it's also one the earliest bookstores on the Internet. I remember visiting their site back in 1994, amazed at their selection.

Publisher's Weekly reports that the already massive Powell's Books is in the process of setting up a large new warehouse, in order to deal with their quickly growing online sales. Their website now account for 40% of their overall sales.